Local audiences get sneak peek at 'Formentera Lady'

Friday, 01 June 2018 13:10

The departments of culture and tourism of the Formentera Council announce that next Tuesday, June 5, the island's cinema will host an early screening of Formentera Lady with director Pau Durà and leading actor José Sacristán.

Proceeds from the special sneak preview, which was programmed for Tuesday to accommodate the demanding schedules of Durà and Sacristán, will benefit Save Posidonia Project.

For the administration and for the island at large, Durà's gesture hasn't gone unnoticed. During shooting the filmmaker pledged local audiences would be among the first to get a chance to see Formentera Lady.

FilmingFormentera Lady was shot between late March and mid April, 2017. Director/screenwriter Pau Durà's first film, the project took shape over two weeks at an array of local sites. Migjorn beach, legendary watering hole Fonda Pepe, la Mola lighthouse and the la Savina marina are among them, though portions of the story play out in Denia and Barcelona as well.

José Sacristán as the film's lead, Samuel, is joined by a cast including Jordi Sánchez, Nora Navas and fresh face Sandro Ballesteros, who makes his big-screen début as Samuel's grandson Marc. Supporting roles are played by Ferran Rañé, Mireia Ros, Pepa Juan and more than a hundred formenterencs as extras.

The storySamuel landed on the island smack dab in the seventies and never managed to leave. Living in a shack near the sea with no electricity, he spends his time playing banjo in a local bar, until one day he receives a visit from his daughter Anna and grandson Marc. When Anna is offered employment in France, she decides to take it, even if it means leaving her son with Samuel.

After an initial rebuff from the ageing hippy, Anna insists, imploring her father to help her, if only just this once. Samuel, who is both fragile and excentric, resolves to rise to the occasion, and builds a relationship with his grandson that will stir more than a few ghosts from Samuel's past. In this twilight journey of discovery brimming with hope, not only the island itself, but its people and surroundings, too, are on full display.